Henry Spoerri( Coll:, 21-) reports on the match of the year
The Wykehamist
XVs
Henry Spoerri( Coll:, 21-) reports on the match of the year
To say Commoners were hungry for a XVs victory would be an understatement. After three years of defeat— two by the finest of margins— Luke Edwards( K, 21-), Commoner captain, was intent on turning the tide. Red-striped supporters streamed across Meads to meet the roaring OTH crowd at the canvas— a fitting prelude for a side intent on unseating the established three-peat victors. Opposite stood the Brown, their fractured display against College still fresh in the mind, now faced with a Commoners team MR had dubbed the best in years.
Any doubts about the favourites were drowned out well before the opening hot. Chants rolled, metal clanged, a trumpet sounded; even without the old, prohibited bin-bashing, the sidelines swelled with noise. When the XVs finally ran in, they did so to a wall of sound.
Despite Henderson( G, 24-) and co. quickly ramming the hot out of OTH’ s control, an unfortunate bounce against the second row saw the ball flung astoundingly to Houses’ feet. This would set the trend for a surprisingly inconsistent hot performance from the Red hot machine Luke Edwards had trained so hard to perfect. Word had spread before the game of JWS’ contrivances for OTH to jam up the cogs of the hot, and boy did it seem to work— albeit at the cost of a few burst blood vessels of the increasingly frustrated Piers Fletcher( A, 21-). Brown’ s efforts to drive the hot up into pediment formation— as well as the ravenous chasing of Fergus Turvill( B, 22-) and Max Jackson( A, 21-), breaking off from the hot’ s side— prevented a clean delivery to the presaged man-of the-match against College, Isaac Hawkins( K, 23-).
The first quarter of the game saw a slow start with a series of missed catches and, as was aptly put by RJHM’ s commentating,‘ frantic ball striking from everyone’— or in Paul Edwards’( A, 17-22) immortal phrasing,‘ too much mustard on the hot dog’. Yet glimpses of the thrilling intensity that would come, particularly in the second half, quickly arrived. Just a minute after his unfortunate bust, Holly Wang( I, 22-) blasted the ball past Arthur Duckworth( H, 21-) for the first point of the game, setting the tone for a half of ferocious, often lone, chasing. The Reds responded in kind with what was certainly their cleanest hot of the game, delivered sweetly to Isaac Hawkins to send flying over worms. Soon after, a composed sand wedge goal from James Kennedy( D, 21-) reminded us of the quality expected of the favourites.
Houses, however, seemed ever hungry to fight for a lead. Michael Jin( I, 21-) drove the ball relentlessly up both flanks of the canvas; one such surge yielded a free bust for Isaac Claisse( B, 21-), OTH captain, sailing the ball far beyond worms. Bullet-fast behinds and decisive clearances from Seb Kingsbury( A, 21-) kept the pressure at bay. For the first half, at least, Kingsbury’ s omens rang true:‘ OTH— we’ re leading the way.’ Calling hot after hot, playing oily after oily, Commoners sought to slow the tempo against the wind. And yet, as Houses edged away to 18 – 9, the improbable seemed rather real— the favoured Commoners side stared at a doubled scoreline. A final thunderous bust from Kennedy dragged the Reds back to 18 – 12 at the half-time whistle.
Blasting open the second half with a six-post flyer from Michael Jin, Houses certainly seemed intent on clinging onto their lead. But fired up, the Reds quickly found their rhythm. A beautifully busted conversion from Kennedy, followed closely by Arthur Duckworth’ s soaring flyer to punish Frederick Laarman’ s( C, 22-) missed ropes play, broke the brown momentum. In four breathless minutes the score leapt to 21 – 19, yielding an apparent raise in Commoners’ morale. Luke Edwards wasted no time resetting after each OTH error. Even a headto-head collision— Seb Kingsbury with Isaac Hawkins while in pursuit of an overdone oily— could not dull the edge. Both Red and
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